Tokyto, I certainly agree that it is frustrating to find the ideal pool size, what maps people like, etc.

However, I think in your position it would help to test the maps in it a bit BEFORE putting them into the pool. Recent issues that have been discovered such as flooded niflheim having double reclaim, cold place having imba starts as one is closer to the reclaim, etc are the real damage-doers here.

Since there are folks willing to test things out, I think it might be nice to propose some maps that are new or uncommonly chosen to be played first. Ask me any time and I'll give a run through.

This also became apparent during one of the tourneys where you used farms map which had an issue and it caused people to load four corners.

Other than that I'm happy you are testing the pool size a couple more times. In my opinion the larger one will win popularity (this time around) but it's certainly worthy to play both some more.

I would also like to say that the vast majority of people i know were very happy with the larger pool. Im surprised you changed it again so fast without asking. IMO people mostly already know their preference, prolonging the time before asking wont change many people's opinion.

I liked the big pool a lot more. I came back from a long break and was so happy to see it again, now I've barely played ladder because I don't like any of them and games get really boring when you're playing the same map multiple times and you don't even like the map. In big pool it wasn't that bad and I didn't feel like I have to learn specific BO for every map (even though I should but can get away with more generalized starts rather than map specific ones)

I have just logged on for "one of the few times in a long time" and a small map pool will 100% make me play this game again properly for the first time in years.

Back when i started playing supcom my occupation/lack of wife and child, allowed me the time to refine my build order on each map. And that makes such a HUGE difference to your success. Rescently I found this game totally unappraochable, because of the vast amount of differing build orders from so many maps. I guess that appeals to unemplyed people, or super experienced players. Imo if you want to attacked new players, bring back old ones, and maybe retain some casual ladder players keep the pool small.

The sheer amount of game/map knowledge required to play the ladder on faf is rediculas. Everytime i log on there is about 300-400 ppl online (my tz). I think a small map pool is the best thing i've seen to make that grow.

I see ladder's been popular as ever with that sudden small pool change (only to give people the taste of it again!)All the replays i see when searching for 1800+ are people who i remember being in 1500-1800 group before. At least its good to farm the points it seems. Not a single "pro" name left.